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Russia Ukraine: Biden warns Russia against Ukraine 'red lines'
Joe Biden has warned that he will not accept "red lines" set by Moscow as fears mount that Russia is planning an imminent invasion of Ukraine.
The US president said he will make it "very, very difficult" for Russia to invade its neighbour.
Meanwhile, US media has reported that intelligence officials fear an invasion could begin in early 2022.
It comes as Ukraine says Russia has boosted its military at the border and amassed some 94,000 troops there.
A video call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mr Biden to ease tensions is expected this week. The US President told reporters he is expecting to have a long discussion with the Russian leader, and warned that he will not "accept anybody's red lines".
"What I am doing is putting together what I believe to be the most comprehensive and meaningful set of initiatives to make it very, very difficult for Mr Putin to go ahead and do what people are worried he's going to do," Mr Biden said as he left for the presidential retreat at Camp David.
While Mr Biden did not set out what precise actions the US plans to take, American and Ukrainian officials warned again this week that severe economic sanctions are on the table against Russia.
On Thursday Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the US had threatened fresh sanctions after his meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Mr Biden's comments come as the Washington post reported that US intelligence officials fear the Kremlin is planning a multi-front offensive as soon as early next year involving up to 175,000 troops.
Officials have also reportedly seen an increase in propaganda efforts through the use of proxies and media outlets to denigrate Ukraine and Nato ahead of a potential invasion.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov has said that he believes the most likely timing of any Russian escalation "will be the end of January".
This week Britain's most senior military officer said "we have to be on our guard" about the potential for conflict in the region.
Gen Sir Nick Carter told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show that he "distinctly hoped" there would not be a war with Russia, but added that Nato would have to be ready for that eventuality.
More
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-59528864
Biden administration seeks to prevent potential Russian invasion of Ukraine
WASHINGTON – The Biden administration said Friday that it was consulting with Congress and allies on a range of options aimed at dissuading Russia from carrying out a potential attack on Ukraine.
President Joe Biden himself said Friday that his administration was preparing actions to make it tough for Russia to conduct its second invasion of Ukraine within a decade.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has warned Washington and European allies that Russian troops have amassed along its border. Meanwhile, Moscow has accused Kyiv of pursuing its own military build-up on the border.
Biden hopes the U.S. can prevent the situation from escalating.
“What I am doing is putting together what, I believe to be, will be the most comprehensive and meaningful set of initiatives to make it very, very difficult for Mr. Putin to go ahead and do what people believe he may do,” Biden told reporters Friday after an address at the White House.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters later in the day that the Biden administration was monitoring the situation on the Ukrainian and Russian border.
“We can’t predict from here what President Putin’s calculus is or what the Russians’ calculus is. We saw what they did in 2014. We’ve seen what they’re doing on the border and we’re going to consult with our allies and partners and Congress here to be prepared for a range of options,” Psaki said referring to the illegal Russian annexation of Crimea.
The seizure of Crimea in 2014 sparked international uproar and triggered a series of sanctions on Moscow. Shortly after the annexation, a war broke out in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russian-backed separatists.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Russia to de-escalate tensions by first removing its troops from the border.
----The nation’s top diplomat also warned that there would be trouble for Russia if it continued its provocative actions against Ukraine.
“If Russia just decides to pursue a confrontational course, if it renews its aggression, there will be very serious consequences and not just from us, but from other countries as well as Europe. I hope very much that Russia factors that into its thinking, especially because there is a much better way forward,” Blinken said. “Confrontation would be in no one’s interest.”
Earlier this week, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that any future Russian aggression against Ukraine would come with serious political and economic consequences for Moscow.
More
Stocks, yields slide after U.S. jobs report as Omicron looms
NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Global equities and benchmark U.S. bond yields tumbled on Friday in volatile trade after data showed U.S. job growth slowed considerably in November and the Omicron variant of the coronavirus kept investors on edge.
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 210,000 jobs, the fewest since last December, but the unemployment rate plunged to a 21-month low of 4.2% and 594,000 people entered the labor force, the most in 13 months, indicating a rapidly tightening labor market. read more
Despite weak jobs growth, solid details in the Labor Department report suggested Federal Reserve plans to accelerate tapering of its bond purchases and expectations for multiple rate hikes next year remained intact.
The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes fell 9.8 basis points to 1.351% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite stock index slid almost 3% at one point as investors anticipated slower economic growth next year.
"The market is saying the Fed is going to make a serious policy error by raising rates too quickly," said Joe LaVorgna, chief economist for the Americas at Natixis. "Everything is working toward a much weaker growth backdrop; that is what the market senses, and the virus is occurring in the backdrop."
The Treasury yield curve measuring the gap between yields on two- and 10-year Treasury notes , seen as an indicator of economic expectations, narrowed to 77.0 basis points, down from almost 130 points in early October.
Recent global economic growth projections from the International Monetary Fund are likely be downgraded due to the emergence of the Omicron variant, said IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. read more
Omicron has gained a foothold in many countries worldwide and many governments have restricted travel rules to curb the variant. read more
"The top issue is still this whole Omicron variant. There are enormous amounts of uncertainty there," said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.
Oil prices fell and gold prices rose almost 1% as the plunge in U.S. Treasury yields boosted the safe-haven metal's appeal.
IMF chief says Omicron could dent global economic growth
WASHINGTON, Dec 3 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund is likely to lower its global economic growth estimates due to the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the global lender's chief said at the Reuters Next conference on Friday in another sign of the turmoil unleashed by the ever-changing pandemic.
Omicron has spread rapidly to at least 40 countries since it was first reported in South Africa last week, officials say, and many governments have tightened travel rules to try to keep it out. read more
"A new variant that may spread very rapidly can dent confidence, and in that sense, we are likely to see some downgrades of our October projections for global growth," IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told the conference.
Much remains unknown about Omicron. Researchers said it could have picked up genetic material from another virus, perhaps one that causes the common cold, which would allow it to more easily evade human immune system defences.
Parts of Europe and the United States are grappling with a wave of infections of the more familiar Delta variant. The new strain could further destabilize economies that are still emerging from COVID-19 related lockdowns and disruptions.
A corporate Christmas party in the Norwegian capital Oslo resulted in at least 13 infections, making it the biggest outbreak outside of South Africa, officials said. read more
China, US tussle over Biden’s ‘Summit for Democracy’
BEIJING (AP) — China and the United States are tussling over President Joe Biden’s upcoming democracy summit, which the ruling Communist Party sees as a challenge to its authoritarian ways.
The party maintains China has its own form of democracy and plans to issue a report titled “China: Democracy that Works” on Saturday, five days before the opening of Biden’s two-day virtual meeting with about 110 other governments.
The White House pushed back Thursday against Chinese criticism of Biden’s “Summit for Democracy,” after a senior Chinese official said that it divides countries and points fingers at others.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the participants would discuss how to work together to stand up for democracy around the world.
“That’s nothing we’re going to apologize for,” she said.
She was responding to opening remarks by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng at an expert forum on the topic held by the government for foreign journalists in Beijing.
“It claims it’s doing this for democracy,” Le said, without naming the United States. “But this is in fact the very opposite of democracy. It will do no good to global solidarity, no good to cooperation and no good to development.”
Biden has made a competition between democracies and autocracies such as Russia and China a central theme of his presidency, saying democracies must prove they can deliver. Neither Russia nor China are invited to his summit.
The Communist Party has responded by saying its system serves the country’s people, citing its rapid development into a middle-income country and relative success in limiting the number of deaths from COVID-19. Officials regularly highlight failings of American democracy, from gun violence to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol after the last presidential election.
Bonnie Glaser, a China expert who is director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said the Chinese are correct in viewing the summit as a pushback against autocracy and China’s political system.
“The Chinese Communist Party likely feels threatened by the Biden democracy narrative and feels compelled to reaffirm that it puts the people first,” she said in an email. “Of course, the people come after the party and the preservation of its role, but that is left unsaid.”
The U.S. also angered China by including Taiwan in the summit. China claims the self-governing island as part of its territory and objects to it having any contact on its own with foreign governments.
U.S., EU hold high-level meeting on countering China
Dec. 2, 2021 / 11:20 PM
Dec. 2 (UPI) -- The United States and the European Union held their second high-level meeting concerning China on Thursday as the two sides attempt to foster a united policy to confront and work with the Asian nation amid growing tensions.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and European External Action Service Secretary Stefano Sannino held the dialogue on China in Washington, D.C., producing a joint statement in which they expressed the importance of "maintaining continuous and close contacts" with one another as they manage their systemic rivalries with China as well as cooperate with it.
The pair also discussed "the growing list of China's actions that are of concern, including those that breach international law and run counter to the shared values and interests of the United States and EU."
During the meeting the two sides reviewed the work of six working groups that were launched following the first high-level meeting in May, covering the topics of reciprocity, resilience, human rights, security, multilateralism and areas for constructive engagement with China, such as climate change.
The United States has been taking a strong stance against China starting under the previous Trump administration that has continued into the Biden White House, and the meeting on Thursday signals the European Union may be coming around to President Joe Biden's attempts to form a partnership to confront Beijing.
More
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/12/02/European-Union-China-meeting/2901638501392/
Finally, is it all over for China Evergrande? Despite the oily soothing words from Chinese authorities, when China Evergrande finally topples, I think the “spillover” will be significant.
Struggling Chinese developer warns it could run out of money
BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese developer that is struggling under $310 billion in debt warned Friday it may run out of money to “perform its financial obligations” — sending regulators scrambling to reassure investors that China’s financial markets can be protected from a potential impact.
Evergrande Group’s struggle to comply with official pressure to reduce debt has fueled anxiety that a possible default might trigger a financial crisis. Economists say global markets are unlikely to be affected but banks and bondholders might suffer because Beijing wants to avoid a bailout.
After reviewing Evergrande’s finances, “there is no guarantee that the Group will have sufficient funds to continue to perform its financial obligations,” the company said in a statement through the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Shortly after that, regulators tried to soothe investor fears by issuing statements saying China’s financial system was strong and that default rates are low. They said most developers are financially healthy and that Beijing will keep lending markets functioning.
“The spillover impact of the group’s risk events on the stable operation of the capital market is controllable,” the China Securities Regulatory Commission said on its website. The central bank and bank regulator issued similar statements.
----Evergrande, the global real estate industry’s biggest debtor, owes 2 trillion yuan ($310 billion), mostly to domestic banks and bond investors. It also owes $19 billion to foreign bondholders.
Evergrande said it has 2.3 trillion yuan ($350 billion) in assets, but the company has struggled to turn that into cash to pay bondholders and other creditors. It called off the $2.6 billion sale of a stake in a subsidiary last October because the buyer failed to follow through on its purchase.
Evergrande’s statement Friday said the company faces a demand to fulfill a $260 million obligation. It said if that obligation cannot be met, other creditors might demand repayment of debts earlier than normal.
More
Global Inflation/Stagflation Watch.
As global costs soar, Japan's 'shrinkflation' gets harder to swallow
Fri, December 3, 2021, 6:35 AM
TOKYO (Reuters) - It was a chocolate biscuit that turned Masayuki Iwasa, a self-professed penny-pincher with a sweet tooth, into one of Japan's most scrupulous chroniclers of "shrinkflation".
Having sworn off his favourite Chocoliere tartlets for a decade after Bourbon Corp reduced the package size, the newspaper delivery man and part-time stock trader was spurred to action around two years ago after he noticed the biscuits had also gotten smaller.
"I was annoyed they were shrinking and shrinking," said the 45-year-old Iwasa, whose website, http://www.neage.jp (price increases), documents surreptitious price hikes.
Today he tracks prices of some 400 goods and services - everything from washing powder to day passes at Tokyo Disneyland. The bulk of his website is devoted to so-called shrinkflation, when a product gets smaller but the price stays the same.
"In Japan, the impact of deflation means it is difficult to raise prices directly, so shrinkflation is a kind of a measure of last resort," Iwasa said. "But basically it's sneaky and it bothers me."
While the practice is hardly unique to Japan - Mondelez International Inc sparked a global outcry when it reduced the size of the Toblerone chocolate bar in 2016 - its prevalence in the world's No.3 economy is a notable legacy of years of deflation.
Because consumer prices and wages barely budged for the last two decades, companies have become reluctant to increase prices for fear of losing customers.
That's a headache for policymakers, who ultimately want to see higher prices that are an essential component to a virtuous spending cycle that drives economic growth, especially as the population ages and declines.
There are now signs that even Japan Inc may be nearing a tipping point, as soaring raw material costs and a weak yen drive up what companies pay for fuel, coffee beans and beef.
While only 14% of Japanese firms have so far passed on higher costs to customers, another 40% say they plan to, a recent Reuters poll showed.
Yet food companies are among the least willing to pass on costs, the survey showed, reflecting their fear of alienating shoppers.
"As the price of raw materials increases, food manufacturers would like to raise prices but it is difficult for them to do that," said Tsutomu Watanabe, an economics professor at the University of Tokyo.
Watanabe said many companies will balk at outright price increases, just as they did in 2008 during another commodities surge and in 2013-2014 when the yen weakened sharply, leaving shrinkflation as one of the few ways to protect margins.
----Kameda Seika Co was hit with criticism this year after it reduced the contents of packages of its "kaki pi" rice cracker and peanut mix by 5% to 190 grams.
The size was cut because Kameda could no longer offset rising commodity and transport costs with belt-tightening elsewhere, a spokesperson told Reuters.
Calbee Inc said it will reduce the contents of some of its potato chips and Jagarico potato sticks by about 5% from next month. Separately, it will raise prices of more than a dozen potato chip products by up to 10%.
More
https://www.yahoo.com/news/global-costs-soar-japans-shrinkflation-063515592.html
Below, why a “green energy” economy may not be possible, and if it is, it won’t be quick and it will be very inflationary, setting off a new long-term commodity Supercycle. Probably the largest seen so far.
The “New Energy Economy”: An Exercise in Magical Thinking
https://media4.manhattan-institute.org/sites/default/files/R-0319-MM.pdf
Mines, Minerals, and "Green" Energy: A Reality Check
https://www.manhattan-institute.org/mines-minerals-and-green-energy-reality-check
"An Environmental Disaster": An EV Battery Metals Crunch Is On The Horizon As The Industry Races To Recycle
by Tyler Durden Monday, Aug 02, 2021 - 08:40 PM
Covid-19 Corner
S.Korea reports record-high COVID-19 cases, deaths
December 4, 2021 2:10 AM GMT
SEOUL, Dec 4 (Reuters) - South Korea reported a record daily 5,352 new COVID-19 infections and 70 deaths, while a nationwide total of nine cases of the Omicron variant have been confirmed, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Saturday.
The government on Friday announced that people visiting restaurants, cinemas and other public spaces will have to show vaccine passes. It is also reducing the limit on private gatherings to six people in the greater Seoul area, from 10 currently, and to eight from 12 for those residing outside of the capital, starting next Monday. read more
The hospitalisation rate was rising rapidly led by severe cases of COVID-19, with the number of serious and critical patients at 752 as of Friday, KDCA said.
South Korea has also confirmed three additional Omicron cases, bringing the total to nine after a fully vaccinated couple tested positive for the variant after travelling from Nigeria last week.
To fend off the new variant, authorities on Friday announced a 10-day mandatory quarantine requirement for all inbound travellers for two weeks, halting exemptions given earlier to fully vaccinated people. read more
South Korea has been battling the worst wave of infections since July, when the daily cases stood below 2,000 until the government switched to "living with COVID-19". The cases hit 5,000s for the first time this week, putting a strain on the healthcare system.
The country, which has fully inoculated 91.7% of its adult population, has so far reported a total of 467,907 COVID-19 infections, with 3,809 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Omicron-stricken South Africa may be glimpse into the future
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Dr. Sikhulile Moyo was analyzing COVID-19 samples in his lab in Botswana last week when he noticed they looked startlingly different from others.
Within days, the world was ablaze with the news that the coronavirus had a new variant of concern — one that appears to be driving a dramatic surge in South Africa and offering a glimpse of where the pandemic might be headed.
New COVID-19 cases in South Africa have burgeoned from about 200 a day in mid-November to more than 16,000 on Friday. Omicron was detected over a week ago in the country’s most populous province, Gauteng, and has since spread to all eight other provinces, Health Minister Joe Phaahla said.
Even with the rapid increase, infections are still below the 25,000 new daily cases that South Africa reported in the previous surge, in June and July.
Little is known about the new variant, but the spike in South Africa suggests it might be more contagious, said Moyo, the scientist who may have been the first to identify the new variant, though researchers in neighboring South Africa were close on his heels. Omicron has more than 50 mutations, and scientists have called it a big jump in the evolution of the virus.
It’s not clear if the variant causes more serious illness or can evade the protection of vaccines. Phaahla noted that only a small number of people who have been vaccinated have gotten sick, mostly with mild cases, while the vast majority of those who have been hospitalized were not vaccinated.
But in a worrisome development, South African scientists reported that omicron appears more likely than earlier variants to cause reinfections among people who have already had a bout with COVID-19.
“Previous infection used to protect against delta, and now with omicron it doesn’t seem to be the case,” one of the researchers, Anne von Gottberg of the University of Witwatersrand, said at a World Health Organization briefing on Thursday.
More
New data affirms 3rd COVID vaccine dose significantly boosts protection
Rich Haridy December 01, 2021
New research published in JAMA Internal Medicine is offering the best insight to date into the long-term benefit of a third COVID-19 vaccine dose. Tracking over 300,000 subjects in Israel the research shows a third dose of Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine reduces a person’s chance of SARS-CoV-2 infection by 86 percent compared to two doses.
In light of the emergence of yet another concerning SARS-CoV-2 variant many countries around the world have started rolling out broad third-dose COVID-19 vaccine programs. Despite COVID-19 vaccines showing robust long-term protection from severe disease, hospitalization and death, protection from infection or mild illness has been seen to wane around five or six months following a second dose.
On the first of August this year Israel became the first country in the world to begin a national third-dose vaccination campaign, making it a perfect test case for studying the lasting effects of a third COVID-19 vaccine dose.
The new study compared positive COVID-19 cases between those who received two doses of Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine and those who received three doses. The data included more than 300,000 people over the age of 40 and covered a period of time up to early October.
The research found around two weeks after a third dose, rates of COVID-19 infection significantly dropped compared to what was seen in a matched two-dose cohort. Relatively, those receiving three vaccine doses were 86 percent less likely to report a positive infection, and this protection was consistent for the entire 65-day follow-up period in the study.
“These numbers should be interpreted as the reduction in the odds of infection in a person receiving the booster dose compared with a person receiving only the two primary doses,” the researchers stress in the study. “This reduction comes on top of the reduction in the risk conferred by the first two doses.”
The findings recall another recent real-world investigation into the effectiveness of third vaccine doses out of the United Kingdom. That research concluded a third dose provides 80 percent greater protection from symptomatic COVID-19 compared to two doses.
However, the UK research only offered insight into protection two weeks after a third vaccine dose. This new data out of Israel provides a valuable glimpse at how long that third dose protection could last by providing infection data more than two months beyond the booster shot.
Perhaps the key question yet to be answered is how long does third dose protection last? Will it decline at the same rate seen after two doses or will a third dose hold strong for a longer period of time?
Israel’s health minister recently suggested a fourth vaccine dose may be necessary if the country experiences a new wave of infections. But some preliminary research has indicated protection after a third dose may be more robust than what was seen after two doses. And, of course, none of these projections take into account the recent emergence of the Omicron variant.
The new study was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
Dying COVID-19 Patient Recovers After Court Orders Hospital to Administer Ivermectin
By December 1, 2021 Updated: December 1, 2021
An elderly COVID-19 patient has recovered after a court order allowed him to be treated with ivermectin, despite objections from the hospital in which he was staying, according to the family’s attorney.
After an Illinois hospital insisted on administering expensive remdesivir to the patient and the treatment failed, his life was saved after a court ordered that an outside medical doctor be allowed to use the inexpensive ivermectin to treat him, over the hospital’s strenuous objections.
Ivermectin tablets have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat humans with intestinal strongyloidiasis and onchocerciasis, two conditions caused by parasitic worms. Some topical forms of ivermectin have been approved to treat external parasites such as head lice and for skin conditions such as rosacea. The drug is also approved for use on animals.
Remdesivir has been given emergency use authorization by the FDA for treating certain categories of human patients that have been hospitalized with COVID-19. But the use of ivermectin to treat humans suffering from COVID-19 has become controversial because the FDA hasn’t approved its so-called off-label use to treat the disease, which is caused by the CCP virus also known as SARS-CoV-2.
Critics have long accused the FDA of dragging its heels and being dangerously over-cautious and indifferent to human suffering in its approach to regulating pharmaceuticals, a criticism that led to then-President Donald Trump signing the Right to Try Act in May 2018. The law, according to the FDA, “is another way for patients who have been diagnosed with life-threatening diseases or conditions who have tried all approved treatment options and who are unable to participate in a clinical trial to access certain unapproved treatments.”
Medical doctors are free to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID-19, even though the FDA claims that its off-label use could be harmful in some circumstances. Clinical human trials of the drug for use against COVID-19 are currently in progress, according to the agency.
The drug “most definitely” saved the elderly patient’s life “because his condition changed right immediately after he took ivermectin,” attorney for the family, Kirstin M. Erickson of Chicago-based Mauck and Baker, told The Epoch Times.
More. Much, much more.
Could This Chewing Gum Reduce the Spread of Covid-19?
Preliminary results show the viral load in infected saliva was reduced viral load by 95 percent, but the research has a long way to go
December 1, 2021
Previous evidence has shown that people infected with Covid-19 have high levels of the virus in their saliva. Now, researchers have developed an experimental chewing gum that traps SARS-CoV-2 viral particles, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. The gum may help lower viral transmission when infected individuals breathe, talk, or cough, reports Nancy Lapid for Reuters. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania published details of the study this month in the research journal Molecular Therapy.
The experimental gum traps viral particles through copies of a receptor called the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors riddled along its surface. Like a key inserted into a locked door, SARS-Cov-2 enters human cells by latching onto ACE2 receptors. ACE2 proteins are found lining the surfaces of some cells and epithelial tissues in the body, such as the lungs, heart, blood vessels, kidneys, liver, and gastrointestinal tract.
Scientists designed the gum with plant-derived ACE2 proteins with the novel idea that viral particles will latch onto the gum, minimizing the ability for the virus to spread from one’s mouth to others, reports Grace C. Roberts for the Conversation.
To test the gum’s effectiveness in trapping the virus, researchers collected saliva samples from Covid-19 patients and mixed them with a powdered form of the gum. When looking at the samples, the team found that the gum laced with ACE2 proteins had soaked up viral particles from the infected saliva, whereas normal chewing gum did not have the same effect. In total, the viral load in infected samples was lowered by 95 percent when mixed with 50 milligrams of the powdered gum, Reuters reports.
---- Overall, the gum could theoretically be effective against other variants of Covid-19 since all forms of SARS-CoV-2 enter the body by latching onto ACE2 proteins regardless of mutations. However, real-world applications still need to be completed to confirm this. If found to be an effective tool, the gum could be another prevention tactic to add to the current toolkit of public health measures against the virus like masks, social distancing, and vaccination. The chewing gum could also be useful in countries where vaccines are sparsely available or unaffordable, per Reuters.
Next, some very useful vaccine links kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada. The links come from a most informative update from Stanford Hospital in California.
World Health Organization - Landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines. https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines
NY Times Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
Regulatory Focus COVID-19 vaccine tracker. https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker
Some more useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus resource centre
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Rt Covid-19
The Spectator Covid-19 data tracker (UK)
https://data.spectator.co.uk/city/national
Technology Update.
With events happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section. Updates as they get reported.
Another reason why batteries can’t charge in minutes
Date: December 2, 2021
Source: DOE/Argonne National Laboratory
Summary: Researchers find new issue complicating fast charging.
Researchers find new issue complicating fast charging.
Haste makes waste, as the saying goes. Such a maxim may be especially true of batteries, thanks to a new study that seeks to identify the reasons that cause the performance of fast charged lithium-ion batteries to degrade in electric vehicles.
In new research from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, scientists have found interesting chemical behavior of one of the battery's two terminals as the battery is charged and discharged.
Lithium-ion batteries contain both a positively charged cathode and a negatively charged anode, which are separated by a material called an electrolyte that moves lithium ions between them. The anode in these batteries is typically made out of graphite -- the same material found in many pencils. In lithium-ion batteries, however, the graphite is assembled out of small particles. Inside these particles, the lithium ions can insert themselves in a process called intercalation. When intercalation happens properly, the battery can successfully charge and discharge.
When a battery is charged too quickly, however, intercalation becomes a trickier business. Instead of smoothly getting into the graphite, the lithium ions tend to aggregate on top of the anode's surface, resulting in a "plating" effect that can cause terminal damage -- no pun intended -- to a battery.
"Plating is one of the main causes of impaired battery performance during fast charging," said Argonne battery scientist Daniel Abraham, an author of the study. "As we charged the battery quickly, we found that in addition to the plating on the anode surface there was a build up of reaction products inside the electrode pores." As a result, the anode itself undergoes some degree of irreversible expansion, impairing battery performance.
Using a technique called scanning electron nanodiffraction, Abraham and his colleagues from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign observed another notable change to the graphite particles. At the atomic level, the lattice of graphite atoms at the particle edges becomes distorted because of the repeated fast charging, hindering the intercalation process. "Basically, what we see is that the atomic network in the graphite becomes warped, and this prevents lithium ions from finding their 'home' inside the particles -- instead, they plate on the particles," he said.
"The faster we charge our battery, the more atomically disordered the anode will become, which will ultimately prevent the lithium ions from being able to move back and forth," Abraham said. "The key is to find ways to either prevent this loss of organization or to somehow modify the graphite particles so that the lithium ions can intercalate more efficiently."
Winter Watch.
This weekend more on the new winter watch section. Northern hemisphere snow and the Arctic ice cover. Usually by about mid-November both give a pretty good indication of the winter to come.
The Eur-Asian snow cover this November was extensive, far more than last year which came off of an unusual Siberian summer heatwave that probably affected both the snow cover and Arctic ice.
The Arctic sea ice extent this mid-November is slightly below normal. Taken together this more often than not suggests much of Europe is headed for a colder than normal winter, although given the Arctic sea ice extent, not a harsh winter.
https://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/nh_snowcover/
Read scientific analysis on Arctic sea ice conditions.
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/
This weekend’s musical diversion. Approx. 9 minutes.
L. v. Beethoven: Romance No. 2 in F -Julia Fischer, Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Felix Mildenberger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2rblR3Tmkc
This weekend’s maths update. Just imagine. Approx. 23 minutes.
How Imaginary Numbers Were Invented
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUzklzVXJwo
This weekend’s chess update. Approx. 12 minutes.
Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Magnus Carlsen || World Chess Championship (2021) || Game 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdzqhmeSDvY
“The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.”
Thomas Jefferson.
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